Several Republican lawmakers joined thousands of people in Washington, D.C., on Monday to rally for the Cuban people protesting the communist regime there.
“Today, we made our voices heard outside the White House and again demanded that (President Joe Biden) show up and stand up for freedom and democracy in Cuba,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said in a post on Twitter Monday.
Monday’s rally marked the 68th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution that saw communist Fidel Castro take over the island nation that sits 90-miles off the Florida coast. It also follows days of continued protests against the regime in the communist country that began July 11, with thousands taking to the streets in the capital of Havana and other cities, chanting “freedom” and displaying American flags in rebuke of the 62-year-old revolutionary government.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel sent troops out to quell the protests while blaming the demonstrations partly on the U.S. embargo.
Other GOP lawmakers joined Scott to voice support for the people of Cuba, including Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., Rep. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., among others.
Democratic legislators did not attend the rally, the Miami Herald reported.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy sent a letter to the White House requesting a meeting with the Biden administration to discuss supporting the Cuban people during the protests.
“I just requested a meeting with the White House to discuss how to best support the Cuban people in their quest for liberty against the oppressive regime in Havana,” McCarthy said in a post on Twitter. “The world is watching—this is a moment when the U.S. can change the course of human history for the better.”
The Biden administration said it is placing new sanctions on two government officials in Cuba for what it says are “mass detentions and sham trials that are unjustly sentencing to prison those who dared speak out," Fox 13 reported.
Another thing the administration is trying to do for the people is to make sure Cubans still have access to the internet following the government shutting access down during the protests so that the images can get out of the country.
One couple attending the rally from Florida, Artemio and Marlen Garcia, left Miami at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday to get to Washington by midnight Monday for a candlelight vigil.
“People need help,” Marlen Garcia, 60, told the Miami Herald. “The Cuban government needs pressure, like America and other countries did with apartheid South Africa.”
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